Knitting Publishers, Stop Insulting my Grandmother

This is a post that is a little old, from January, but it struck a chord with me. It’s written by the owners of [tag]Rosies Yarn Cellar[/tag], a store in Philadelphia, PA and the blog is [tag]Rosie Blogs[/tag].

What is significant about this rant, and it is a rant, is that a store owner is taking a stand against the mass marketing hooha that has become the world of knitting. Knitting has reemerged as a hot hobby. The big hype now is “It’s not your grandmothers knitting, yarn, book, store”, whatever.

Lisa writes –

There must be 500 new knitting books being published this Spring. And 475 of them have the word “young,” “cool,” “hip,” or “easy” in the title.

I don’t know about you, but Courtney and I are sick of it. We’re sick of people claiming that what they do is “not your grandmother’s knitting,” as if there was something wrong with our grandmother’s knitting.

(Hey, publishers–stop insulting my grandmother. I know that’s not what you’re trying to do, but I’ve had it. Eve Plotnick and Dorothy Myers were women of skill, patience, resourcefulness, and creativity. And if you think I’ll ever think better of anything you’re showing me because you tell me it’s unlike what they did or would do, you’re way wrong.)

And we’re sick of all the books that promise to deliver nothing but easy projects. Guess what? Knitting isn’t difficult. In other parts of the world, 4-year-olds do it. Every person reading this–everyone capable of learning to use a computer to read a blog–is smart enough to do any kind of knitting we want.

Do you hear me, publishers? Stop calling us stupid. Every time you tell us that it’s all so easy, we hear what you’re really saying: “Knitting is so hard. Numbers are so scary. Let us hold your hand.” Remember the uproar over the talking Barbie that said “Math is hard”? Same thing.

So here’s the new policy at Rosie’s: We’re not going to order any more books that have “Easy” in the title. We’ve told our book distributor to take us off the “automatic” program that guarantees that we get every new title that comes down the line. There’s too much out there, and too little of it is good.

Now that is really putting your money where your mouth is. Only ordering classic books with good patterns, proven designers – not just every fly-by-night designer who is hot now but doesn’t have good enough stuff to last longer yesterday leftovers.

And what is just as interesting are all the comments to the post. Many people resent the illusion that our grandmothers were dumb and that we need to be speed knitters with large needles and bulky yarn because we are too busy to devote many hours to intense projects.

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns.

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn.

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options.

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners.

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set.

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn.

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers.

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.

Have you read?